The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-26
SIX WEEKS AT QUARANTINE.
The Dramatic Story of an Immigrant
Prisoner in a Floating Pest house.


From the Ne,C York World
An unassuming Italian immigrant, ap-
parently well educated, but driven by pow
erty from his native land, took passage on
the Inflated cholera ship Alesia. In looking
among the city departments for work he
met with a reporter who understood his
language. Here is the story he told when
asked what six weeks quarantine were ike
TO him:
"We left Naples behind us on Sept. 81
said the Italian through an interpreter.
1--WE supposed that we had left the hated
cholera behind us, also. There were 56l OF
US, but two of whom were ill, and thew but
slightly A week passed. No sic5ness
showed itself, A week and no cholera We
had reason to suppose that we had ESCAPED
its dread grasp. But, no! We had been
nine days out when a young man named
Luigi Maria died, after few hours illness.
His body was hastily consigned to the
waves after the usual services. The ships
surgeon and officers looked pale and grave,
but nothing was said. At that time the
passengers did not know the cause for these
alarmed countenances, but they learned
later. Three days later and Antonio Bald
yana became i'll, and was a corpse lrf few
hours after his first attack
IAN uneasiness settled upon the uassen-
gers and was communicated to the crew
There was something in the sudden taking
off of these men which suggested cholera.
and the suggestion was more suggestive be-
cause of the fact that we had left a cholera
infected port"
THE next to go was a sailor, who was
taken ill and died the following dav, the
Sept. 16. 1t was useless to attempt to con-
ceal the fact nger-the dread disease was
upon us.
1.-The realization was terrible! In Italy
we could flee from the scourge. In the
mountains we could find at least fancied
security from its ravages. But there we
were, penned in between the limited walls
of the snip, with nothing but an appa renty
hmitless waste of waters about us. con
demned to remain aud see our fellow
travellers, our friends and our relatives die
and, perhaps, to die ourselves, without an
op ortunity to evade our fate
1.-The first feeling was one of determined
resistance to fate, but this was. succeeded,
after realizing its futility, by stoid indif-
ference among some, while others sat ar lun
and seemed to chafe at the slowness of
Death in claiming them for his victims
days dragged on. The officers of the
vessel performed their duties in a perfume
tory sort of way, as though they might as
well be called while at their post as in
moping and bewaiing their situation.
Death was accepted as his lot by every
man on the ship, and yet the floating pest
house was driven on to its destination as
though its freight of disease was as welcome
as so much gold and precious stones to the
New World. No one had thought that he
might escape what was universally accepted
as the common lot until land was GIFTED
on Sept %, when they who were not yet
stricken first began to realize that there
Nya Grill hnna in "a fQlaaCQ frntn tha
im2regnated prison house which held them.
'How long were the hours which inter
vened between the sighting of land and the
morning of Sept %, when our yellow flag
brought the Health Officer aboard with an
order that we go into quarantine!
"Our hopes, which had risen with a sight
Of the land on which we had hoped to set
foot and fly from the pest which had pur-
sued us across the ocean, were dashed
by the order that we be isolated from the
rest of mankind on the islands in the bay.
This order was terrible disappointment.
We must remain and flirt with ath. But
our chances for life were materially in
creased, and we welcomed the change from
the plague-infected hip TO the not over
no spitable island with eagerness.
1--WE were not compelled to huddle to
gether with the SICK and dying
From these we were isolated.
Il ght of our passengers and crew had
died on the voyage and many we're i'll with
the dreadful diseas' when we arrived. New
cases were re1orted daily.
THE capacity for grief seemed to be lost
on board the vessel, but on the island it was
different. Hope bad returned With what
poignant grief was it | learned of the i'll
ness and death of n brother, whose loss
would have hardly been noticed had IL oc-
Cured on shipboard. In the six dreary
weeks Of Punishment ed to watch with
longing eyes the inward-bound vessels sail
ing TO your wharves. As hope grew stronger
chafed more and more every day for re-
lease, until ON Nov. IL was set free. be-
ieve another month of IL would have driven
me crazy"